How Lightsabers Work

Evan takes his experiment in a new direction by having his AI-powered voice agent converse with … another of his AI-powered voice agents. What can these surreal and hilarious conversations between two AI incarnations of Evan Ratliff tell us about identity, authenticity, and the b ... Show More

How much would it take for you to tattoo a memecoin's name on your forehead? Taylor Lorenz (User Mag) tells us about the platform where crypto speculators pay strangers to do almost anything in service of pumping their coin's value: Pump.fun Go. But Taylor argues this is bigger t ... Show More

Did your college have a secret society? Well, Stanford has a secret off-campus class training the next generation of Silicon Valley billionaires. And it's literally called "How to Rule the World." Theo Baker arrived at Stanford as an aspiring coder with dreams of building the fut ... Show More

<p>What do Edison, Tesla and an unfortunate elephant named Topsy have in common? They were all involved in "The War of Currents," an ongoing battle over the standardization of electricity. Tune in and learn more about Topsy's fate in this episode.</p><p> </p> Learn more about you ... Show More

In this episode of STBYM’s The Artifact, Robert discusses an ancient Chinese sword noted for its unusual sharpness and resistance to tarnish... Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

As the Invention podcast ends, discussions of techno-history become part of STBYM again. So let's explore some past episodes of Robert and Joe's other series. Here's their sidebar with Scott Benjamin about a mysterious death in the history of motion picture technology... Learn mo ... Show More

In celebration of May the 4th, this episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind ventures into a galaxy far, far away while also considering the science and biology of our home world. Join Robert and Joe as they break down six fantastic alien species from the Star Wars universe. Learn more ... Show More

In this episode of STBYM’s The Artifact, Robert discusses the bazooka and whether it is ever OK to bring one on a commercial flight… Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

In this episode of STBYM’s The Artifact, Robert discusses the Mesoamerican weapon known as the Macuahuitl... Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

After our sun dies, it and many other stars will eventually crystallize. Learn how astrophysicists figured this out -- and how it works -- in today's episode of BrainStuff. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for pri ... Show More

The creation of atomic weaponry changed human civilization forever, but it also left its mark on the Earth itself -- in both obvious and subtle ways. In this episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, Robert and Joe discuss some of the ways in which the world would not be the same. Lear ... Show More

On a clear night, the stars seem to wink and twinkle in the sky. Learn why in this classic episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://science.howstuffworks.com/why-do-stars-twinkle.htm Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystud ... Show More

For many of us, toy guns were part of our childhood, but how are we to think about them today? In this episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, Robert and Joe look at some of the current thinking on the use of toy weapons in childhood play. Learn more about your ad-choices at https:// ... Show More